Letters for June 29

McMorris Rodgers needs to stand up to Trump

After enabling President Donald Trump for many years, is our recently retired U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers feeling guilty?

She should be, but the proposals she lists in her new initiative (Spokesman-Review, June 4) certainly aren’t adequate to absolve that guilt.

Former Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, in her book “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning”, describes long-time Trump idolater and current Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s actions following the Trump-orchestrated Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as reprehensible: Cheney identifies Johnson as one of the politicians most responsible for resurrecting Trump’s political fortunes by Johnson’s lies and double-dealing.

Yet despite a front-row seat observing Johnson’s two-faced manipulations, McMorris Rodgers further cemented her loyalty to Trump by originally nominating Johnson for House Speaker.

McMorris Rodgers can still repent and find redemption, but she’ll need a radical rebirth to find the courage to stand up to Trump and help save our democracy.

Norm Luther

Spokane

Don’t forget main truths about march

A senior in life, I attended my first protest with my veteran husband and son. By The Spokesman-Review’s estimate, the “No Kings” protest had 10,000 to 20,000 attendees. It’s disappointing that no coverage noted that, by my estimate, 50% of the attendees were us “gray hairs.” Media was hyperfocused on the dozen arrests at the end of a many-hours protest. The insults now voiced are trite and childish, denigrating the youngsters and dismissing us who have worked (or still work) for decades, paying taxes, protecting our Constitution, worshipping God and not committing crimes.

Upset, some came with wheelchairs, canes and walkers. A few signs were crude, but most were poignant or humorous. While people were upset, fed up, frustrated and mad, it was also a joyous community, seeing so many of all ages and races participating in their amendment right and getting the honked support of passersby.

I’m baffled, befuddled and amazed that in seeking to sell millions of acres of public land that all of us use; withholding Congress-appropriated grants for cancer, Alzheimer’s and drug research, including a grant to Spokane for emergency shelter support during wildfires, all to support tax cuts for billionaires; declaring the VA can deny care to Democratic veterans; and now bombing without Congress’ approval, that anyone still supports Donald Trump.

Reader, are you a billionaire? Aren’t you disgusted enough by the lies he’s told you?

Crystal A. Bingham

Spokane

Spokane’s future looks gloomy

Local homelessness may increase as Spokane begins monetizing enhanced treatment and remediation systems. If you build it, they will come. Soon an overheating stench from human waste could join seasonal wildfire smoke for an experience tourists rafting the Spokane River may never forget. Downtown benches where old men in high top shoes once sat placidly now offer chaos rather than cultural repose.

It’s a freedom, like the song says, with nothing left to lose. Jackboots and tear gas seem ready to replace religious enthusiasms and entrepreneurial ingenuity should Spokane’s experiment fail. Our city will change either way.

Don Hornbeck

Spokane

Take your data centers elsewhere

To Donald Trump shooting across my bow, “Stopping Radical Environmentalism to generate power for the Columbia River Basin” (Presidential Memorandum June 12, 2025).

So what he is saying is that we should allow Southern Resident orcas to starve into “bright extinction;” allow the extinction of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead (once among the largest runs in the world); collapse an ecosystem; and starve Idaho’s Salmon River forests of marine nutrients and thereby lose natural carbon sequestration equivalent of about 90 MMT per year, so data centers can locate in the Pacific Northwest.

I say, “Let them locate data centers elsewhere. Stupid is what stupid does.”

Scott Levy

Ketchum, Idaho